This all went down in Rockdale county in Georgia. There's a pretty pitiful Frontline expose on it floating around.

I don't think that anyone who has responded to this post believes that parents and society aren't an enormous part of the problem we're discussing--the thing is that these adults are condoning this kind of gender expression because they aren't providing the necessary framework for their kids to question these images. I don't know that I would use the word "dangerous," but this book is even worse because it's being promoted by a patriarchical religious leadership and an enormous network of adults who, I think, don't feel the need to contextualize the ideas in Twilight with--for lack of a better word--other gender discourses.

"Teenagers being stupid is consistently pushed into a corner of other people's responsibility instead of the parents from teh beginning grounding them in what they want their kids to be."

Yet just a couple replies before, you were saying that teenagers doing stupid things wasn't new or unique. Then you say, "The girls were emulating porn and not responding to stimulus combined with biological urges." So was this the parents' responsibilities or just impulses that teenagers would've carried out regardless? Yeah, teenagers can be idiots, but when teenagers are engaging in unprotected sex orgies, that has nothing to do with "biological urges," and everything to do with girls and guys wanting to embody the uber-masculinity and femininity they see on a TV screen.

"Everything doesn't have to be about making sure all messages are crafted to current ideology--sometimes, we, these girls, everyone, can take enjoyment and let it stay enjoyment instead of the constant barrage that nothing they do, read, say, is good enough or mature enough or smart enough or worthy enough."

Now, I think this may be an inflammatory move, but I feel like this idea has the same associations to it as white privilege does in society. As a minority female--and reflective of the research I do in my department right now--I don't get the privilege of not thinking, "How does what I do reflect on my minority group as a whole?" Unfortunately, being considered the lesser sex/gender/race/ethnicity/etc. comes along with a great deal of self-consciousness as to how that facet of my identity is represented to society as a whole.